


Expectations

by PatchworkIdeas



Series: Raffle Prizes [5]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Not Related, Arranged Marriage, Can I connect three completely different prompts in a meaningful and fun way?, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, Long-Distance Friendship, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Trans Character, Wrong Number AU, yes i can
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:48:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23820319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatchworkIdeas/pseuds/PatchworkIdeas
Summary: The Mage Marriage Laws aren’t kind to anyone, but two unexpected friends refuse to let that stop them.
Relationships: Fíli/Kíli (Tolkien)
Series: Raffle Prizes [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1687792
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Expectations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xenia_che](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xenia_che/gifts).



“I think you have the wrong number.”

“My parents wrote this one down and insisted I call this tutor. Maybe they need one more, if they can’t even get the number right!”

The voice on the other end of the line chuckled, agreeing.

“Parents are weird. I’m doing pretty good in school, but they still keep hogging me about getting better, especially in the arts department. I prefer more straight forward classes, anything with clear laws and rules, like math.”

“Really?!” Kili asked, suddenly excited. “That’s where I need some help! And I’m really good at the creative parts! Maybe we can help each other? You definitely sound more fun than some stuffy old tutor. And they did insist I call this number - and often.” He hesitated. Would it be weird to talk so much to a stranger? But they did sound about the same age... “If you want to, of course.”

“Sure, what do you need to know? And what grade are you in anyway?”

“Seventh grade. You are a lifesaver! I’m Kili by the way! You?”

His new tutor - and hopefully friend - hesitated for a moment, before making up his mind. “Call me Fili. Me too.”

They talked for hours, and not just about classes; only to call again the next day, and the day after, doing homework while joking over the phone. Kili’s parents were proud of him for taking school so seriously now, and talking with his “tutor” so often.  
Well, Fili did help him better his grades, and Kili made sure to keep them up, to ensure his parents wouldn’t have any reasons to call him themselves. He didn’t want to lose his best friend.

-

“Do you… like girls? I mean, some of my classmates start getting insane about them, and I just don’t get it. I mean some of them can be fun, sure, but mostly girls are just bossy and boring and like weird stuff and why does everyone insist I will love one someday? It’s just weird.”

Kili prattled on over the line, not noticing that Fili had pressed the mute button for once. He looked at his phone for a long time, letting the words of his best friend wash over him for a long moment, a sob lodged in his chest that he refused to let out. Kili was quick to pick up on it when Fili was upset, and he couldn’t do it. He just couldn’t. He had lost so many friends over this already. He couldn’t lose Kili.  
He couldn’t.

“Yeah, I agree. I don’t like girls either. If it were up to me, I would rather just hang out with boys instead.” Voice steady, breathing calm, and yes - Kili took it hook line and sinker and started prattling on about how awesome boys were.

“…Can I tell you a secret? One you will never tell anyone else?” Kili asked eventually, voice oddly uncertain.

Giving his friend his whole attention, as secrets always deserved, Fili solemnly swore.

“I think I’m gay. What the hell do I do?”

Fili didn’t know. But he tried to support Kili, let him know that it was ok. Kili seemed grateful at the end, happy to have someone he could trust. But Fili laid in bed for hours, clutching at his chest and cursing his fate all over. If only, if only.  
And yet, that fragile hope bloomed. Maybe Kili would understand, could look beyond it. Maybe. 

Maybe.

-

“Just, ugh, why? Why do we have to _marry_ one. I don’t want to marry some stupid girl. I don’t want to make babies with her to keep the magic alive. And I certainly don’t want to have to _live_ with her afterwards. If making kids is so important for us, why don’t they just figure out a spell for it or something. It’s stupid forcing people into this, and I refuse to be miserable listening to some stupid prissy princess who’s going to order me around my whole life!”

It wasn’t the first time Kili ranted about this topic to his friend. Mostly because there was no one else he could rant to. Others might be able to choose freely, but he was a _mage_ and mages had to marry mages and make mage babies and keep the fucking magic alive because the world needed them. It was so _stupid._ Stupid recessive genes, stupid laws, stupid rules. 

He didn’t want any girl.  
He had a good idea who he wanted, but that could never be.  
Fuck his life.

Fili was never anything but supportive, even if he didn’t say much about it. But he listened, always. Kili appreciated that. But he still couldn’t shake that there was something off about Fili too, whenever he mentioned it. Judging by his words, Fili was probably gay too, and yet there was always a thread of tension there. But Kili didn’t want to lose his only confidant. So he didn’t ask. It would come out someday.

And it did.

He just hadn’t expected it to come out like that.

Fili sobbed.

“What’s wrong, did something happen?” Kili hadn’t heard any loud noises on the line, but Fili didn’t cry easily.

“Don’t mind me, sorry, I just.. I gotta go, alright?”

“Wait! Please! If you really need to go, it’s okay, but...you know you can talk to me, right? I swear I’ll listen.”

“I...I shouldn’t. I don’t want...” another aborted sob, and something was obviously wrong, but how could he _help_? 

“You can. You don’t have to, but you can. You always listen to me rant and rave, you can do that too, you know? It really helps getting stuff off your chest sometimes.”

A long pause, and Kili would’ve thought their connection had been cut if it hadn’t been for Fili’s heavy breathing on the other side.

Eventually, so quiet that he had to strain his ears:

“I got my period today. I don’t want this. This isn’t right. I hate my body. I hate what it’s forcing me into and it feels so wrong.”

Period?

“Fili? What are you…?”

“I’m a boy. I’m not a girl, I don’t care what anyone else says. They say I’m a freak for it, that I should just be happy to be married to some fucking asshole someday who will make babies in my body and _I don’t want this!_ I don’t want any of this. I’m not a girl! I’m not a girl.”

Kili was thrown for a loop - the thought his friend could be a girl hadn’t even crossed his mind - Fili was Fili. And Fili was a boy. But there wasn’t much time to truly process the knowledge, Fili was crying, already in the process of apologizing, and Kili couldn’t let that stand.

“Of course you’re a boy!” He all but shouted over the line, before Fili could hang up and maybe never talk to him again. “They’re all idiots if they don’t believe you. Only you get to decide that!” He wasn’t sure what to say, how to make things better, but he did know that for sure. 

“Thank you. But I’m still… You always rant about how unfair the marriage law for mages is. Those laws don’t _care._ I’m going to be married off to some asshole who’s going to use me like that for the rest of my life, and I just… I know you need to get it off your chest, but can we not talk about it anymore? Please? I can’t handle thinking of it all the time.”

Kili felt his stomach drop, suddenly all too aware of just what marriage would mean for his friend. Maybe it wouldn’t help but “I wouldn’t force you. If they think you are… I wouldn’t force you. Ever. I don’t know if we can convince our parents to go for it, but maybe…?”

It was a crazy idea, and maybe it was the wrong moment, too fast, especially considering how he knew he felt about Fili. Was this taking advantage? But he would treat him right, wouldn’t insist on anything, even if they just stayed friends. Friends who lived together and shared their lives. Maybe it wasn’t perfect, but if there was any chance for happiness for them both…

“You would marry me. Even though I’m...”

“You are my best friend Fili. The person I trust the most on the whole planet. Let me ask my parents, ok?”

The relief was palpable, even over the phone line. Perhaps it wasn’t such a wrong move after all.

-

“They already set up a match for me. Last year. Some guy from a good family. They refused to tell me the name, probably so I don’t freak out and divinate or curse him. Just said he was a good person. I told them, Kili, I told them ages ago, and they said they understood but they still did this.”

Fili knew he wasn’t being fair. He knew about the laws in place, how marriage was mandatory for anyone with the gift, because their numbers were dwindling and so much of their society depended on them.

None of that made it better.

“I’m sorry. They already set me up, too. I...” Kili gulped, voice shaky. “I don’t know what to do. But I don’t want this. For either of us. We can’t just… we can’t just lie down and accept that we’ll be miserable for the rest of our lives due to some stupid laws though, can we? There has to be something...”

And maybe there was. They just had to find it.  
They just had to make their own plans.

\- 

“My match asked to meet me early.” 

Fili flinched, all too aware of what that meant for the family in question. Mages met on the day they married, to make sure pesky emotions didn’t feature in a match made by favorable genetics. If a family asked to meet despite that, it usually meant some insecurity about their own kid’s ability to handle the match. Families like that were often looked down upon, for not being able to raise their children to be dutiful and responsible adults. 

It wasn’t supposed to be that way. But he’d researched the rare practice after his parents made the early meeting request for him. They had probably meant to take his fears away, but he only felt worse after reading all the horror stories online.

He hadn’t actually mentioned Kili to his parents, not before he knew there was hope. He didn’t want them to think there might be a chance of him and Kili doing something stupid to be together.  
Like they had been planning, to be honest.

But, if they _both_ got to meet their match...

“Mine too.” It was technically a lie, sure, but the important part was that they would both get to meet their match early. And he didn’t want to add yet another thing to be ashamed of to the list of things Kili knew about him. Even if Kili had never been anything but supportive. 

“Maybe we could...” They started at the same time, laughed, and Kili asked: “We are going to sabotage our match, aren’t we? That was what you wanted to say, right?”

It sounded so harsh like that, and Fili hated the thought of disappointing his family, but they knew he was a boy, and they still set this marriage up regardless. He had to at least try to fight for his happiness.

They would probably get grounded for life for acting out and souring their existing contract, but at least they would both be free to choose each other.  
Why would their parents say no after all, go through all the trouble of finding another ill suited spouse, if Fili and Kili presented them with an option that was actually wanted?

It was still a better plan than running away and never seeing their family again.

It was a chance.

-

Kili swallowed hard and cursed his luck again. Whoever his match was had the most handsome brother he had ever seen. It would be a shame to see his obviously carefully styled outfit destroyed, the tight leathers and that self confident smirk gone when he walked into one of the many, many traps Kili had set up all through their house while his parents had been preparing everything for the visit.  
But sacrifices had to be made.  
‘For Fili.’ He thought, strengthening his resolve.  
Didn’t matter that she had a hot brother, he had Fili, and he would find a way to be with him. Somehow.

Where was she though?

The family came up the driveway, just the two parents and the hot brother. Just the three. Didn’t he get to meet her after all? Would he have to convince her whole family that he was too childish and a brute and what not so they would call it off?

Except-

“This is Philipina Durin, our precious child, and the future partner of your son.”

Phili…

Oh.

Gorgeous blue eyes studied him cooly, with an air of disinterest. A faked air, as Kili well knew. There was no other way. On the same day, with the same plan they had set up, with that name? He had to pull this around, fast, before they pissed off each other’s families for no reason.

“Hi! I’m Kilian, Kili to my friends, and you are gorgeous, my man.” 

His parents probably wouldn’t be very happy with him, there were traditions to be followed after all, but they needed to abort and be on their best behavior and he still couldn’t believe that _this_ was _Fili._

This had to work.

Fili’s eyes widened for a moment, looking him over, searching his eyes, before a relieved sigh broke out of that facade, and his tense shoulders lowered just a bit.

He had dimples when he smiled.

Fili was gorgeous and amazing and they were going to be married someday and Kili was the luckiest guy on the planet.

They just had to keep the match.

His parents ushered them all in, and Kili insisted they wait in the foyer just a bit, he had forgotten something. Fili’s eyes widened, and he hastily asked to come along, much to the confusion of their parents. It didn’t matter. He pulled Fili into the next room, and rushed out: “We need to undo the pranks. My parents are going to kill me and yours might change their mind and I need your help.”

They rushed through the house, undoing all of Kili’s work in record time, before rushing back, sweaty from all the running and adrenaline.

Their parents had conjured a table full of sweet pastries and were serenely drinking tea and talking like old friends.

Something was obviously off here.

“Finally dismantled all the pranks? I would hate to get a bad surprise because you forgot one.” His mother teased, to the amusement of Fili’s parents.

“I take it you don’t mind the match, my dear?” Fili’s mother asked, eyes warm and friendly.

Kili’s mouth fell open. This was not exactly what he had expected. He had expected to try to do damage control the whole evening, somehow making up for the weird, but necessary, beginning, but none of this made any sense.

“Mom…?” Fili asked, eyes wide and probably as unsure of what was going on as Kili was.

“We did tell you it would be ok. That we would find someone good for you. And well, you two were talking an awful lot everyday. And seemed to get along swimmingly. It seemed a safe bet.” Fili’s dad stated, gesturing to join them at the table.

“You were supposed to only meet on your wedding day. It would have been the best prank of all time.” Kili’s mom sniffed, her usual theatrical self, “But noo, you had to start making plans for running away together instead of talking to us. Don’t do something like that again, both of you, you hear?”

Kili swallowed, a heavy lump in his throat, both from realizing they weren’t going to lose each other after all and from the knowledge that there was surely a more in depth discussion on trusting his parents and not doing stupid shit behind their back in his future. Both of their futures, judging by Fili’s guilty grimace.

“How did you know?” Kili asked, because he had to know.

“Your plans, or you falling for each other?” His dad snorted. “We love you, but you are about as subtle as a brick.”

Kili thought about the online research, the traveling brochures, and how he would light up and race to answer his phone the moment his “tutor” rang - and admitted there might be some truth there.

Wait. Tutor.

“You gave me his number?! Intentionally? You set us up?”

“Did you really think we wouldn’t check in with a tutor we were paying to teach you? But thank you Fili, really, you are such a gem to help him like that - his grades have improved a lot!”

“We only set up your marriage after we knew you were getting along, though. Not before. We figured if you knew early you might rebel on principle. I trust that won’t be the case now?” Fili’s dad added with a stern look.

Fili nodded, and rushed up to hug them both. Kili was still stuck, brain not quite having caught up with the fact that his parents essentially out-pranked him. He would never live this down.

...But maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, he thought, seeing Fili’s wide smile, and knowing he would get to see it for the rest of his life. He would marry Fili, the boy of his dreams. And reality was so much better than he had ever dreamed it could be.


End file.
